The Presidential Task Force on Control of COVID-19 said Thursday that the country’s economy is not yet ready for a full reopening.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and chairman of the Presidential Task Force, Mr Boss Mustapha, who disclosed this in Abuja, said said President Muhammadu Buhari has approved that some restrictions should be relaxed while maintaining key limitations to curb the risk of a spike in number of cases.
He said arrangements have been concluded to test additional 100,000 at the various National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camps nationwide when they re-open on November 10, 2020.
He said the Presidential Task Force believes that recent numbers point to a likely flattening of the curve consistent with emerging epidemic control, but the country is not yet ripe for full reopening of the economy.
“The major changes proposed by the PTF are as follows: Gradual and safe re-opening of schools and NYSC camps; Re-commencement of sporting leagues, in particular all outdoor activities such as football; Sustaining the midnight to 4:00am curfew on movement nationwide; and Removal of the limitation on civil servants allowed to come to work.
“Maintaining the third Phase of the National Response to COVID-19 for a period of four weeks with effect from 00.01am on Monday, 19th October, 2020 in line with amendments to address economic, socio-political and health considerations reflected in the table above;
“Sustain engagement with states and local governments to improve community sensitisation and sample collection; Continue to monitor the impact of school re-opening and the commencement of international travel and enforcing compliance with the protocols set out for the safe resumption of these activities; and Maintaining the already established non-pharmaceutical interventions nationwide in order to flatten the curve,” he said.
The SGF said state governments have achieved the testing target of one percent of the population.
He said the country now has a molecular laboratory for COVID-19 testing in every state of the country.
The SGF said additional funding provided by the federal government would help to scale up testing for COVID-19 across the country.
He said the Presidential Task Force has concluded arrangements to execute the National Testing Week as part of the arrangements to ramp up testing.He said 27,000 international passengers have arrived Nigeria since the resumption of international flights.
